


Ashes, Ashes

by periwinklepalaces



Series: The Tentative Shenanigans of Remus and Virgil (and other events) [2]
Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Developing Friendships, Episode: Can LYING Be Good??, Gen, Makeup, Pre-Episode: Accepting Anxiety, Sexual References, Sympathetic Sides, based on a spontaneous hc thought up by me, guess who’s back on their bullshit, mentions of gore, set before zopiclone critics if you want to link the two together, spoiler alert: it’s me
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-06
Updated: 2019-08-06
Packaged: 2020-08-10 16:15:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,345
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20138317
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/periwinklepalaces/pseuds/periwinklepalaces
Summary: Remus was someone who enjoyed creating, enjoyed sharing his creations, and enjoyed gifting his creations to people. Unfortunately, he was also someone who had terrible insight as to what was and wasn't a suitable gift.





	Ashes, Ashes

Virgil was perfectly content, alone in his room with headphones over his ears, his relaxation playlist drifting over him. He was knitting, more as something to do with his hands rather than because he wanted something out of it, made clear by the growing, messy bundle of knitted yarn slowly crawling across his lap. He had been working overtime recently, and this small moment of calm was doing wonders for his sanity. 

He knew it was going to end eventually, and that he probably wouldn't be the one to end it, and he was correct. 

Sensing Remus' unique presence pop up in his room was not necessarily shocking, but definitely annoying. He paused his hands, dropping the knitting needles and tearing his headphones off his ears. They looped around his neck as he whipped around, grabbing his phone and turning down the volume until the music was silenced. He was on high alert, determined not to give Remus to chance for a sneak attack. 

"Isn't it Dee's turn to deal with you?" He protested as his gaze landed on the Duke, suspicion rising at the apparent lack of weapon. Remus enjoyed ambushing Virgil to see how fast his fight or flight reflexes were. If this wasn't an attempt to start a fight, then what was it?

"Nope!" He bounced closer once he was acknowledged, shifting from the wall to the center of the room. "See, I was thinking-"

"Oh no, God forbid." Virgil breathed sarcastically, eyes flickering to the side to avoid eye contact if Remus heard him. If he did, he didn't draw any attention to it. 

"-And I want to try something out. For that, I need a victim!" Virgil cringed at the phrasing, but didn't interrupt. "The thinking included you, so it would work best if you were the victim." Remus looked at him expectantly, grin wide and unsettling.

"If this is another attempt to get me to hook up with you, you're failing miserably." He replied flatly, feeling his heart beat in his throat. This wasn't a new situation, with Remus demanding attention, but it didn't make him any less uneasy. The Duke tended to have that effect on people.

"For once, it wasn't, but I like the way you think." Remus shimmied, wiggling his eyebrows in odd synchronisation. Virgil made an exaggerated show of gagging to express his displeasure, and just to make sure they both understood that no, that did not mean he was down for a blowjob, he tacked on dryly. "That was not an invitation. Why are you here?"

He pouted momentarily, only to return to his grin a moment later. "Well Virgie, I had a stroke of genius! You see, I've realised your face is very boring to look at-" Virgil raised an eyebrow, expression contorted with offended surprise. "And you're very hard to read, what with your angsty front. So, I thought of a way to fix all those problems at once!"

"Maybe I don't want those problems fixed, you ever think about that?" He shot back with a light sneer. Remus huffed, walking forward and placing his hands on Virgil's shoulders, ignoring the flinch at the physical contact as he walked the other backwards. 

"Don't make this all boring, paramour. It's not that wild of a solution, I promise!" He made a crossing motion over his heart as he forced Virgil to sit down on the bed, smiling. Frankly, the promise didn't mean much, seeing as it was coming from Remus, but he couldn't help feeling intrigued. So he made no move to stop the creative side from plopping down on the bed beside him, instead shifting into a cross legged position and turning to him with a heavy sigh.

"Fine. What's this ingenious idea of yours?"

"Well!" Remus clapped his hands together, giving an air of finality and sealing Virgil's fate of playing along with this bullshit. "How do you feel about eyeshadow?"

Virgil didn't answer for a few moments, furrowing his eyebrows in confusion as he tried to figure out why he was suddenly being questioned - Remus didn't exactly cater to preferences. Then realisation hit him. "I mean, eyeshadow looks cool on other people, but don't tell me-"

"C'mon, eyeshadow would be perfect for you! It would suit your edgy exterior!" Remus cooed, summoning an eyeshadow palette in one hand as he reached out to grab his chin, pushing hair out of the anxious side's eyes. "Look at me, look at me!" He searched his face, gaze as sharp as always, and Virgil had to suppress the urge to recoil at such intense attention. A hum and a nod. "Yes, I have the perfect shade for you."

Remus released his face, poking at the eyeshadow before wiggling the finger in front of Virgil's eyes in a failed attempt to show him the colour. "I think purple would fit you! And then we'd be eyeshadow buddies down to the shade. It's a personal favourite of mine - it's called 'Bruises'." He fluttered his eyelashes, as if doing so would convince the other faster or otherwise look attractive in any way. 

Virgil scrunched his nose up in a blatant show of disgust, leaning back from the other's searching fingers. "Nope, definitely not." He paused, before hunching into himself. "Besides, purple isn't really my colour."

Remus gasped, holding the palette close to his chest. "Oh, you can't mean that. Purple is a colour that suits everyone! I mean, why do you think hickeys are so hot?" Virgil shot him a glare, coaxing a giggle from the creative side as he clicked the palette shut, before watching in horror as it burst into flame in Remus' hands. 

Virgil leaped up, instantly on high alert, only for the other to grab his arm with an iron fist and force him back down as the flames disappeared just as quick as they came. A smile curled crookedly on Remus' face as he opened the palette again, summoning a paintbrush with a snapped handle in his free hand and collecting some eyeshadow on the bristles.

"Let's try this then. It's called 'Ashes Ashes'." His tongue flickered out through his teeth, and he didn't visibly react to his teeth practically slicing through the muscle, even as Virgil flinched back in discomfort at the sight. Remus patted his cheek firmly, holding the palette in a way that made eyeshadow of various shades smear his fingertips and dust the bed sheets. "Show me your eyes, Dracula!"

Virgil, for the hundredth time within ten minutes, rolled said eyes but complied, not particularly liking the idea of Remus forcing his attention onto him by tugging his eyes open by the eyelashes or literally stealing his nose. "This eyeshadow doesn't have actual ashes involved in the mix, does it?" He drawled lazily, mostly joking but partly not, as Remus was absolutely below having ashes in his eyeshadow. He raked a hand through his hair, reluctantly brushing his bangs out of his face for once.

"Maybe, maybe not. It can, if you want it to have!" Remus chittered, leaning uncomfortably close as he began to brush under Virgil's left eye. The touch was surprisingly light - he had expected to be nothing less of attacked by the brush. The slightly sour smell that grew in the air the closer Remus shifted, however, was not a surprise at all. "It would be a spectacular idea, with the added bonus of a fun bit of wordplay."

"Who did you burn for this eyeshadow?" A smirk tugged the edges of his lips, because despite himself, Virgil was indeed petty enough to entertain the idea of some asshole being burnt over eyeshadow. He was not as ready to entertain the idea of said asshole's ashes being incorporated into the eyeshadow currently being applied on his face, but that was far from the point. 

"A witch!" Remus cackled at his own joke, leaning back with his laughter as he tucked the brush behind his ear. He snapped the fingers of his newly empty hand, summoning a hand mirror that appeared to be severely cracked in the top left corner, with a handle that looked suspiciously like a dick. He positioned it so Virgil could see his own tired expression staring back at him. "How's it look?"

He stared at himself, scrutinising his face and turning his head from side to side. After a few moments, Virgil scowled, his gaze flickering up to Remus' shit eating grin. "Is this a joke? I see literally zero difference."

"Well, that's because you already have all natural eye bags. The eyeshadow just makes them look a bit more obvious." Remus responded confidently, as if he had been anticipating that specific remark. Virgil checked his reflection again, noticing a thin layer of grey shimmer just under his eyes. "This is only the baseline!" With that, the other threw the mirror behind his shoulder and took the brush from his ear, opening the palette again. Virgil decided it was best not to check if the mirror cracked any further where it landed.

In a swift motion, Remus ensnared his chin and stuck the brush under his right eye. This time, in alignment with Virgil's initial predictions, he did use unnecessary force with his brushstrokes, making the experience feel borderline aggressive. Of course.

The Duke hummed some tune as he worked, one Virgil couldn't recognise but quickly grew annoyed by, as he was repeating the same four bars and the anxious side was sure it would be stuck in his head for weeks. He chewed his lip absentmindedly, glaring at Remus when he jabbed a bit too hard directly under his left eye. "Your eyes are so pretty. Purple  _ and _ green!" He whined childishly. "It would be nice to gouge them out and keep them in a little mason jar."

"Don't say that with your fingers that close to my eyes." Virgil replied immediately, the words slipping out as a half threat before he had the time to process them. Remus snorted, pulling back once again and summoning the previously discarded mirror which was, as Virgil feared, even more cracked. Despite the damage, he was still able to see his reflection clearly.

The light colour had darkened under his eyes, a darker shade of grey that grew lighter the more it stretched down his face, faint tendrils ending past his cheekbones and spreading across his cheeks. A sheen remained, barely noticeable if you weren't looking for it. Virgil let out a huff of thought as Remus bounced on the bed. He could only be thankful that he was releasing his endless amount of energy in a relatively harmless way. 

"See, the baseline is for when you're experiencing the least amount of yourself." Remus snickered briefly at the wording, before continuing with a proud gleam in his eyes. "And this heavier stuff is for when the paranoia's super bad. Like if Dee's trying to get you in the shower, for the clean reasons and not the dirty reasons." Virgil chuckled at the sadly realistic idea that the thing that Remus feared the most was being forced to clean himself. "It's an easy way for me to tell when you feel like playing, and when you don't!" 

Frankly, the anxious side never actively felt like playing with Remus, but the thought was unusually kind, coming from him. He reached a finger up to rub at the eyeshadow, blurring it at the edges to soften the harsh edges. "It's...great." He finally managed to murmur, before a small smile found its way on his face. "I love it."

"You do?!" Remus shrieked with a grin that seemed to stretch his cheeks but seemed so unbelievably genuine, much too loud for how little distance was between them, but Virgil had no opportunity to dwell on that before Remus lunged at him, effectively tackling him down to the bed. He wrinkled his nose as his senses were attacked with an overwhelming amount of Remus; his signature sour smell, his exceedingly glittery black ensemble and his tight grip that seemed almost scared to let go.

And Virgil, against all odds, hesitated before hugging back. It was a strange sort of docile intimacy that he never expected to share with Remus, of all sides. 

Of course, once Remus decided it was enough and pulled away, he'd pull some sexual reference about how Virgil was under him, and Virgil would push him off the bed with a sharp hiss.

Of course, in a few hours when Virgil went to wash off the entirety of the eyeshadow, he'd realise that Remus accidentally cursed him to always have that baseline light grey under his eyes, and Deceit and Virgil would simultaneously find out he accidentally cursed Virgil's entire room to give anyone who entered the same eyeshadow, correlating accordingly to their individual anxiety levels.

And of course, he'd pick up the habit of applying the amount of eyeshadow that correlated to his current anxiety levels every morning, even after he moved in with the Core Three. Even after he switched to black eyeshadow instead of sticking with Remus' eyeshadow. Even after he got accepted and cut contact with the Others.

But until then, Virgil let Remus cling to him and giggle contentedly as he ran his fingers over sequins in silence. 

-

"And Virgil, I adore the more intense eyeshadow. It totally doesn't make you look like a racoon." 

Deceit threw the insult out so casually, but Virgil knew what the underlying meaning was. The eyeshadow, the original shimmery grey, was a gift from Remus and he had begun to replace it with chalky black to the point where his cursed room recognised that as his eyeshadow and printed it on visitors instead of the grey. 

It could easily be seen as Virgil rejecting Remus and in a way, it was. He shifted, and responded in the only way he knew how. "Nice gloves. Did you just finish washing some dishes?"

He ignored the prickling of grey shimmer underneath his new eyeshadow and the unreasonable prickle of guilt in his gut.


End file.
